Scandal's Bellamy Young Dishes on Her Hit Show and Gives Us a Sneak Peek at Season 3

Week in, week out for the past two seasons of ABC's phenomenon Scandal, Bellamy Young has been serving us Ivy League political-animal realness with her portrayal of Mellie Grant. Whether it's inducing labor so as to prevent Fitz from divorcing her and ending up with Olivia or being a part of #TeamDefiance to ensure that Fitz would get elected, she walks that fine line of garnering empathy because she is so deeply in love and will do anything to keep her family intact. Clearly, it's safe to say that some people adore her while others hate her (I unabashedly love her because she is a fighter, and I'm hoping she finds herself some happy one day), but I think everyone agrees that they get a kick out of her lighting up the screen, which of course makes us #Gladiators light up Twitter. So without further ado, we continue Scandal week with my lovely conversation with Young as we discuss the show and the fans, and she drops a couple of hints about season three.

Photo credit: Angelo Kritikos

Bellamy Young: Phoebe, thanks again for doing this and being so flexible with your time.Glamour: No problem! Oh, you know what? My parents are calling. Let me just press ignore.Young: No! Click over and tell them, "What's up?"Glamour: It's OK. I'll call them back when I'm done. Once I tell them I ignored them because I was on the phone with Mellie, they'll get it. [Laughter] So let me just start by saying that I'm so excited for this interview because I'm a borderline crazy Scandal fan, like I'm sure everyone is...Young: Why just "borderline?" What? Are you holding back? [Laughter]

Glamour: I don't know if you remember this, but last year the cast did a live reading of the season finale episode in L.A. and my coworker Jessica had a bunch of you make a video, leaving really sweet messages about me since I'm the resident Scandal recapper, and I just want to thank you for being a part of it.Young: Oh, I love it! I'm so glad we're finally talking.

Glamour: I want to jump right in. The season starts back up on Thursday. Can you give a sneak peek about the premiere?Young: Well, I can tell you some things. The episode starts 20 minutes from where we left off from when she [Olivia] said, "Dad?" All of Washington is in a state of uproar/panic, and the White House is no exception. We're in triage. Olivia can't be the fixer right now, so there's that dynamic change, which I think affects all the characters. In a way, I feel like you're meeting all them for the first time this season. And in terms of Mellie, she, of course, thinks she should be the fixer. She has a very specific idea about how things should be handled, and she wants to stay in the White House another four years. And that will likely blow up in her face. I don't know if her plans will work out as well as she wants them to. I can also say that I got to do a scene with two other of my brilliant partners in crime over here in the Scandal family. It was almost like an one-act play and that scene is like one of the biggest gifts we've ever gotten as actors. We haven't seen that episode yet, but I'm told that it's going to play as a whole act. Glamour: Wow! I'm so excited.Young: Also, let me just say that everyone at Glamour will be stoked because everybody's look has evolved. [Costume designer] Lyn Paolo is such a genius, and there will be a lot visually to enjoy. It's fun to watch.

Glamour: I can't wait to see how your character looks this season. So I have one more question about this season, which you probably can't answer, but here goes: Is Mellie going to have an affair with her fixer from last season [John Barrowman]?Young: [Laughter] You know, I wish Mellie happiness in whatever form it may be, but I don't know. But I think she's hoping to have an affair with her own husband. That's probably hoping against hope.

Glamour: Yeah, so let's start at the beginning. How did the role of Mellie come about for you?Young: Bless Linda Lowy's heart. She's our casting director and has been Shonda's casting director from the beginning of Grey's, possibly longer than that. Linda is also married to Jeff Perry (Cyrus), so you can see how he got his job. [Laughter] Anyway, it was the day before they started shooting and Mellie hadn't been cast yet. She had two lines in the pilot and Linda, in her kindness, brought me and a few other actresses in for an audition. We each did our lines, one of which was, "Liv!" So they picked me. I shot the next day. I think I had two days on the pilot. One day, I didn't say a word and the other day, I said my lines. I knew Tony [Goldwyn] because he directed me in an episode of Dirty Sexy Money.

Glamour: My brother loved that show, by the way.Young: Yeah, there's a lot to love about that one. I also knew Kerry because she's amazing, and I was so happy to be a part of the show. Then ABC picked us up and we had a table read for the second episode. Shonda came around to me and said, "I think you're going to be here for about three episodes, and I want to write a presidential divorce." My heart sank! I wanted to be around for a long time. Then, Phoebe, I don't know. The writers just started finding the meat of the character of Mellie, and I stayed around. Then the show got picked up for season two, and I came on as a regular. And this has been an incredible. I'll tell you when I found out I was going to be a regular, I was coming back from India. My manager told me the news and I cried.

Glamour: Aww, so sweet.Young: And then my first question was, "Is there any chance they can make me pregnant because I'm really fat from India." [Laughter] And then I was on the show and it was great!

Glamour: Honestly, I can't imagine the show without you. Mellie is so important. I mean, the speeches your character makes are so memorable. One of my favorite ones is from last season when Fitz's drinking has been getting bad and you dress him down. How do you prepare to do an emotional work like that?Young: I see an acting coach whenever I can. I've been with her for years and I rely on her. Those monologues come out of the brain of Shonda. Different writers on our staff write different characters. We do it that way instead of assigning a script to a particular writer like most shows on TV do. So on Scandal, they go off, write the characters, and then come back and put it all together. I'm beyond lucky because Shonda writes in a particular way and creates this strong skeleton. And then there's Tony, who is allergic to dishonesty in his acting. So I do my prep and rely on the structure of the form.

Glamour: Well, you're doing great work with Mellie, and one of the interesting things is that a lot of us are huge Olitz fans and we want them to be together, yet we still like Mellie and love seeing her on-screen, so how do you go about portraying a character who's keeping soul mates apart but still make us root for you when you call out the stuff that Fitz and Olivia are doing?Young: You know, anyone who has loved in this life has found their love unrequited. I don't think anyone's been lucky enough to only have their feelings reciprocated. So I think people get it with Mellie and sympathize because when you are in a situation like hers, you're not wearing your prettiest colors, you're not being your best self. There's also a little wish fulfillment. Mellie has tirades that we couldn't get away with in real life. It's tirades that we give to our steering wheel as we're driving from away. We're always brilliant in our cars, you know? Always say the right thing. With Mellie, she says it in the moment and with strength and she lasers in and that's great to watch. And it's fun to do.

Glamour: Let's talk about Mellie and Fitz some more. They have a complicated relationship. I think they're in love, maybe not the same kind of love as in the beginning of their relationship. What do you think? Do you think it's beyond damaged?Young: I think it's all things. That's the true genius of the show. Shonda doesn't think, I have to figure which thing it is. It's messy like life and encompasses everything. So of course, Mellie and Fitz have a deep, abiding love. Of course they are incompatible in so many ways. But you can say that about a lot of marriages and it doesn't mean that you don't make it work, but it also doesn't that you do either. And that's where the drama is. There is a world in which these two make it work. They pull this off, they remember their love, their commitment to their country and they move forward. And there's a world where it's love conquers all and he should be with Liv and Mellie should find the next chapter of her life. Both those things are valid. So the writers walk that tightrope and show us how to walk it as well. It's astonishing. One last thing: Mellie loves Fitz to her own detriment, and I feel like a lot of the population can relate to that as well. You just can't help yourself from loving someone and that's where she is with him. The love has almost turned on itself.

Glamour: So how do approach conveying that? Do you draw on personal experience?Young: Like I say, I'm so blessed. The words are gorgeous on the page. It doesn't take a lot of actor homework in order to figure this all out. Certainly, there are things I draw from my life, from the people around me, from what I watch, and what I feel. And if I use someone else's pain in my work with Mellie, I want to make sure I honor it and them. So, yeah, I don't discriminate. I will draw from anywhere and it becomes this giant patchwork quilt.

Glamour: You've mentioned some of the cast members a little bit earlier. I watch a lot of the interviews you guys do and you seem like a family and you interact with the fans on Twitter. Was this love at first sight with the cast or did it build over time?Young: I think it was high on Shonda's list—she has a "no assholes" policy. [Laughter] So she did her homework with everybody and put together really nice people. We all met each other and said, "You're all so nice." We know how lucky we are. None of us are babies. We've been around for a while, and we're all pretty hip to being grateful about being this opportunity before it was even anything that anyone watched. And now that we get to share our joy with the world, it's crazy. It's a happy drug.

Glamour: Let's talk more about Twitter. You all are so attentive and you live-tweet. Was that also an organic situation or was that some that Shonda or Kerry pushed?Young: It was Kerry's brainchild. She was way ahead of the curve as she always is. She told Shonda to tell all of us to tweet because she didn't want to be a bossypants. And we all love the show, so why wouldn't we do whatever to support the show? Also, I come from theater, as do many of the other actors on the show, and tweeting feels like the live audience factor again. We can feel how things are landing with people. Our fans, our Gladiators, they got us our show. Definitely got us our second season. Fully responsible. They watch every episode and they give us their art and their responses. That's the most humbling and inspiring experience. This has definitely changed the way TV is watched. For a while, it was "Must See TV" and then everyone started binge-watching shows. And now, Scandal is an interactive experience. It's become appointment TV and makes it amazing, I think, television. Maybe I'm prejudice.

Glamour: No! You're absolutely right. Your show and Breaking Bad are the only ones that I have to watch when they air.Young: I love it.

Glamour: Can you share a couple of your favorite moments on Scandal so far?Young: Oooh! I think I have to do favorite episodes. Episode 208 where we shot Tony. It was unbelievable television. I also loved "752." Guillermo was astonishing in it. I wasn't in that episode, so I got to just enjoy and watch it like the Gladiator that I am. I couldn't believe the beauty.

Glamour: So glad you mentioned "752" because it's one of my favorite episodes as well. OK, well, I'm really excited for all the changes Mellie is going to go through this season, the wardrobe, and the one-act scene.Young: Me too. We're going to watch it this Sunday at Jeff's.

Don't miss a single moment of Scandal's season-three premiere on Thursday by tuning in to ABC at 10 P.M. ET/PT.